Video of The Great PHEV Debate! Perfect electric car option or EV dead end? CarsGuide Podcast ep 245
Mitsubishi new Outlander PHEV can travel up to 85km on a single charge, but is that enough?
We’re watching the automotive landscape change before our eyes, with new hybrid and 100 per cent EV models now arriving in the Aussie new car market by the bucket load.
Great if the physical landscape you’re looking at every day is an urban one, but if you’re a rural driver, prone to racking up a couple of hundred kilometres in a day, you might be feeling as if this brave new world is passing you by.
Publicly-available charging infrastructure for electric cars is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, but those located well outside our major metropolitan areas aren’t exactly feeling the EV love yet.
So, is the situation hopeless, or are there ways for people in the city and those in regional areas to get on-board the electrified bandwagon? The short answer is, yes, with one or two caveats.
So-called ‘self-charging’ hybrids from the likes of Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and others are a solid option for those wanting to stretch the contents of the fuel tank further, the petrol engine and electric motor working separately, in series or in parallel to alternately extend electric range, improve fuel efficiency, and increase performance.
Perfect for the city where stop-start conditions are pretty much the norm. But if most of your driving is at open-road speeds over long distances, a self-charging hybrid will likely end up with the petrol engine running for most of the time.
But what about taking even bigger chunks out of your fuel bill and making a more meaningful contribution to carbon emissions reduction?
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) typically carry a bigger battery, able to power the on-board electric motor for longer periods, increasing zero-emissions range in the process.
Many see plug-in hybrids as the best of both worlds, with enough battery power to allow meaningful zero-emissions driving around town, and extended road-trip range, with easy, rapid refuelling, courtesy of a fuel tank and the combustion engine.
If you’re outside of town, from a hypothetical 200km trip, around a quarter to a third could be covered without any CO2 exiting the exhaust pipe. The catch is you have to plug the car in to juice up the battery.
Of course you can plug into a standard 240-volt AC wall socket, the downside being you’re only getting about 2.0kW from every 10 minutes charging (around 2.0km of range). So, that’s about 5.5 hours for a full charge in a typical mid-size PHEV SUV.
Overnight charging it is, then. It’s simply a matter of getting into the evening plug-in routine. Alternately, for city-dwellers it could mean a trip to the nearest out-of-home charging station. Or the next step could be installing a wallbox-type AC fast-charger at home or where you work.
Power will range from around 7.2kW (around $900-$1500, plus installation) to 22kW (around $1000-$3000, plus installation), the latter potentially delivering 22km of range every 10 minutes, although the higher power option is more a ‘future-proofing’ move as current PHEVs aren’t able to tap in to that level of charging.
Maybe this investment in personal faster charging is the tipping point for considering full EV ownership, where overall range can stretch beyond 600km, if you’re willing to stump up for a car like the Tesla Model S Plaid at circa $220K.
But if your preference is for the surety of a combustion engine in the mechanical mix, the question then becomes is a PHEV SUV the best electrified option? And there’s a strong case to be argued for the affirmative.
For example, the Ford Escape PHEV offers 56km of EV-only range but this mid-size, front-wheel drive SUV has a trick up its sleeve for long-distance drivers. Yes, you can plug in to charge up, but like many other PHEVs (Ford calls its system ‘Power split’) the 2.5-litre 167kW petrol engine will recharge the hybrid battery as you drive.
Something a bit larger? The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV was a ground-breaker when it arrived in 2014, and the current-gen car boasts 84km of electric driving range, with adjustable regenerative braking and an onboard generator to recharge the battery on the go. Combustion engine is a 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol, supported by two electric motors for a combined output of 185kW/450Nm.
Then the list goes on and on across multiple sizes, prices and brands, including BMW (3 Series, 5 Series, 7 Series, X3, and X5) Cupra (Leon and Formentor), Kia (Sorento), Lexus (NX 450h+), Mercedes-Benz (A-Class, E-Class, and GLC), MG (HS), Mini (Countryman), Porsche (Cayenne), Peugeot (3008 and 508), and Volvo (XC60 and XC90).
With additional options coming soon from Jeep (Grand Cherokee), Mazda (CX-60), Range Rover (Evoque), VW (Touareg R), and more.
In long-term testing of the combustion-only Mitsubishi Outlander Exceed, and early evaluation of the recently released PHEV version, like-for-like fuel economy (and therefore, emissions) is interesting.
For the petrol-only car, against an official combined cycle figure of 8.1L/100km, we’ve recorded a monthly average of 10.2L/100km after highway-heavy use, and as much as 15.2L/100km in a month where city driving was more the norm.
Relative to an official combined cycle number of 1.5L/100km for the PHEV, in pure city driving, we’ve seen 0.7L/100km, which reflects almost exclusive use of the electric motor, and 2.0L/100km over a combination of country roads and motorways, with speeds up to 110km/h, and the throttle pinned up steep hills. A more indicative, longer term average is around 5.0L/100km, taking occasional highway trips into account.
Compelling stats. But it pays to consider whether a regular plug-in routine will suit your schedule, particularly if you’re in a single-car situation. Or will you (especially long-distance rural drivers) end up using a PHEV’s petrol engine most of the time, needlessly lugging the extra weight of an electric motor and battery pack around?
It’s an interesting for-and-against equation. Let us know where you stand on the great PHEV debate in the comments below.
Keyword: Do Plug-in Hybrid SUVs make sense? Do PHEV versions the Ford Escape, Mitsubishi Outlander and others add up over the long haul?